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Letters - Eken will fight to restore homestead credit

By Rep. Paul Marquart (DFL-Dilworth) on Nov 2, 2012 at 2:52 p.m.

The elimination of the Homestead Credit led to unfair and unnecessary high property taxes in rural Minnesota. That is why a top priority for the Minnesota Legislature in the next session must be to restore the Homestead Credit.

Senate District 4 candidate Rep. Kent Eken is standing up for rural Minnesota and has vowed to fight to return the Homestead Credit back to our senior citizens, families, and farmers.

Eken understands the importance of this rural property tax relief program that homeowners had enjoyed for over four decades. Unfortunately, some opponents of the Homestead Credit will try to tell you the program was flawed and should not be given back to homeowners.

But Eken knows that almost 60 percent of the Homestead Credit went to rural Minnesota -- one of the few times we get more money than the metro area. He realizes how crucial the Homestead Credit was in keeping property taxes down in rural Minnesota. After the Homestead Credit was taken away, property taxes on rural homeowners this year jumped eight times higher than the metro area and rural business property taxes spiked three times higher than the metro area. Farm land, the heart of our rural economy, saw a property tax increase of $52 million.

I know Eken will fight to restore the homestead credit that will cut property taxes by over $200 million for our senior citizens, families, farmers and small businesses.